As a young musician and budding producer, as your "ears" develop, everything you hear is "food for thought", and not only that, but the old adage "you are what you eat .." might also be appropriate from a sonic perspective as well. As producers, engineers, sound designers, and recording artists, so much of our education comes from mimicking and emulating what others before us have created.As I was reflecting on some influential recordings of my late teens and early 20's, the name of Producer Arif Mardin came up ...If you've never heard of him, that's Ok! You see, often the names of the producers, engineers and studio musicians are not as well known as the performers they work with. However, I would suggest that in this case, you have definitely heard his work, as well as many of the artists who's names benefitted from his genius:The Bee Gees, Barbra Streisand, Phil Collins, Scritti Politti, Aretha Franklin, Nora Jones, David Bowie, Hall and Oates, Queen .. just to name a few.He worked with world class jazz artists too like Michael and Randy Brecker, Gary Burton, Ron Carter, Steve Gadd and Quincy Jones himself.With over 40 gold and platinum albums, 15 Grammy nominations and 12 Grammy wins he is definitely worth checking out.To help you wet your whistle Check out: The Greatest Ears In Town on YouTubeand allow me to recommend the Full Documentary: The Greatest Ears In Town: The Arif Mardin Story produced by his son. The short film includes a who's who of music industry talent and is available as a "Vimeo on Demand" for a small fee.If you enjoy a "behind the scenes" look at what it takes to make the music you enjoy and love this might just be an interesting program.